Mississippi bishop joins protest against Obama speech at ND

n Joseph Latino plans to send a critical letter to the university’s president.
By Galen Holley
Daily Journal
TUPELO – The bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson is joining the opposition to Notre Dame’s decision to invite President Barack Obama to speak at its May graduation.
The Most Rev. Joseph Latino said he is composing a letter to the Rev. John Jenkins, the school’s president, about the apparent incongruity of a “pro-choice” president speaking at “one of the premier Catholic universities in the country, one dedicated to Mary our Mother (Notre Dame).”
Latino, who gave the Daily Journal a preview of the letter, said the university has sacrificed the church’s teaching on the sacredness of life for the distinction of having the nation’s first African-American president speak at its commencement.
Obama was invited to speak last month after U.S. Sen. Robert Casey, D-Pa., canceled. The university also plans to give the president an honorary doctorate of law degree.
Latino joins a number of Catholic bishops who have voiced their objections, including the Most Rev. John D’Arcy, bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, where Notre Dame is located.
Latino, who has publicly praised Obama’s commitment to social justice, said some of the president’s recent choices promote “a culture of death as opposed to a culture of life.”
He cited Obama’s signing of a bill that would provide federal funding for stem-cell research on “aborted babies” and his promising to sign into law the Freedom of Choice Act.
But opposition to the university’s invitation hasn’t come only from Catholics.
Dr. Kenn Beeman, a senior physician with the Mississippi Department of Health, said that as a doctor and a man of faith he’s deeply disappointed.
“Few things are considered by Christians to be more bedrock than a pro-life position,” said Beeman, a Presbyterian whose son graduated from Notre Dame in 2005.
However, according to William Lawhead, chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Mississippi, Notre Dame’s invitation should not be seen as an endorsement of all the president’s policies.
“The invitation is not an imprimatur,” said Lawhead. “You can’t expect that every speaker is going to be completely pure by all your moral and ideological criteria.”
Will Jemison, director of black Catholic ministry for the Diocese of Jackson, said this isn’t the first time Notre Dame has invited a president whose policies in certain areas conflict with Catholic teaching.
In 2001 President George W. Bush was the keynote speaker. Jemison pointed out that the Catholic Church strongly opposes the death penalty and, during Bush’s tenure as governor of Texas, the state executed 152 criminals.
Contact Galen Holley at 678-1510 or galen.holley@djournal.com.